If Lao women could be helped to learn a trade, perhaps as beauticians or weavers, and move on to higher education, this would reduce the number who engage in sex work

Lao women seeking to escape poverty and poor education are increasingly ending up as sex workers in Laos and neighboring Thailand, mainly to support their families and themselves, experts say.

Though many consider it “bad work,” they believe prostitution amounts to the best economic opportunity they have, according to a survey of sex workers conducted last year in the country’s capital, Vientiane.

Many are children when they start, trafficked or tricked into the sex trade.

“Every one of them said they don’t want to do it,” Thatsaphone Sombandith, a Lao researcher who conducted the survey, said in an interview. “They say it’s necessary because of poverty, because they have nothing to live on.”

With an estimated per capita income of U.S.$460 in 2005, Laos is one of the poorest countries in East Asia. Classified by the United Nations as a Least Developed Country in 2004, 71 percent of its population live on less than U.S.$2 a day, and 23 percent on less than U.S.$1 a day.

Lao women, many of whom work in bars called “little shops,” come from different provinces to work in Vientiane, Thatsaphone said. “They come from Luang Namtha, from Luang Prabang, from Sayaboury…from Khammouane.”

Vulnerable to disease

Many become infected with sexually transmitted diseases, Thatsaphone added. “Depending on the place, on the area of the shop, they get infected,” Thatsaphone said. “Almost the entire shop is infected.”

If Lao women could be helped to learn a trade, perhaps as beauticians or weavers, and move on to higher education, this would reduce the number who engage in sex work, Thatsaphone said.

Low levels of education have been identified as one of the greatest barriers to sustainable development in Laos. While education to 18 is free, there aren't enough classrooms and educational supplies to make this a reality.

As a result, only 77 percent of Lao men are literate, while only 60 percent of women can read and write.

Soudalai Onavong, a Lao provincial health official, said that in Laos’s Khammouane province, sex workers “most often are found near the large construction projects” such as the Nam Theun II hydroelectric dam or the cement works at Nakai.

In Savannakhet province, according to the head of the provincial health department, Lao women—along with women from Vietnam and Thailand—provide sexual services along Route 9, Laos’s so-called “East-West economic corridor.”

Young girls at risk

“Most of them come from semi-rural backgrounds, semi-urban backgrounds and frequently are either lured into the sex trade or are frequently tricked into it by promises of other jobs,” Keele said.

In a 2000 United Nations study in Laos, said Keele, “a majority of children who were working in the sex trade were found at various kinds of entertainment establishments: beer halls, truck stops on different transit routes within Laos, places like that, and they were not only used for sex but as bartenders and waitresses.”

“Part of their job was to provide beer, get the men drunk, and then offer sexual services,” Keele said.

Hundreds of child victims

Frank Reimann, Laos country director for CARE International, said it is "extremely difficult" to gauge the scope of the sex industry in Laos, although recent government clampdowns on the entertainment industry have affected the overall picture.

"This has pushed the sex workers into other modes of operation such as through the mobile phone system, meeting at guest houses rather than clubs," Reimann said by e-mail.

"Also the past few years has seen an increase in young women from college being recruited into the s